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THE INDIAS ANTIQUARY
[DECEMBER, 1916
came into the hands of Raghunatha. And the world knew that he was the best man for the place. Bold, generous, courageous and wise, an embodiment of chivalry and valour, ho gained the good will of all. Forgetting the injustice of his suzerain, he shewed a commenclablo loyalty to him by leading an army against a confederacy of the southern Polygars who, for some unknown reason, bad risen under the lead of the great Tottiyan chief Ettappa Nâjk. And now when the Mysorean was at the gates, when the Naik was paralysed to inactivity, when the kingdom itself was shaken to its foundations, he was noble enough to respond to Tirumal Naik's call. With 60,000 men, it is said, he came to Madura and joining his forces with those of the king, gave battle to the Mysoreans, and drove them, after inflicting upon thom a tremendous war, beyond the passée. The gratitude of Tirumal, wo are told, bestowed upon him rare privileges and honours as reward for his services. Besides entertaining him in his own grand fashion in his palace, he bestowed upon him, with a number of elephants and horses, and robes and ornaments, the title of Tirumalai Setupati. Ho further gave him, besides the villages of
Tiruppuvanam, Tiruchchulai and Pallimadai and the lion-faced palanquin which he himself had used, called him in the fondost political language of the day) his adopted son, and dcclared his estate a sarvamanyam, ' i. e., free from all tribute. "From that time the Setupati paid no tribute." Raghunatha, after his return to his estate, acquitted himself as a good ruler. It was he that removed the capital from Pugalur to Râmnad and constructed, in place of the old mud fort, a stronger ono of stone.
Kumara Muttu's campaign against Mysore. Tirumal Náik was not satisfied with the expulsion of the Mysoreans. He indulged the spirit of revenge and ardently desired to humiliate the house of Mysoro and to prove that the cruelties of its soldiers could not go unpunished. With reckless violence, his vanity plunged his kingdom once again into war. A large army uncler the leadership of his younger brother, Kumara Muttu,60 which was joined at Dindigul by the lovecs of the Polygars headed by Rai ganna Naik of Kannivôdi, was soon on the borders of Mysore. After an incessant march day and night, they overtook the Mysorean army returning from their rocent campaign, and retrieved the shame of their past disgrace by a splendid victory. Several fortresses were then taken and garrisoned, and Srirangapatnam itself assailed. It is not known whether the place was taken ; but if the version of the Madura chronicles is true, tho Mysore king became a captive in the hands of his enemies, and suffered for his atrocious cruelty in the past by the loss of his nose. With thousands of less illustrious noses, it was sont by the exultant Naik commander to delight the eyes of his royal brother, but before those eyes could be delighted, they had closed for ever from the scenes of the world.
SECTION VII.
The Progress of the Christians. We saw in the last chapter how a period in the labours of De Nobilis had come into existence on account of the opposition that arose within the church itself against him. and how by June 1623, the very year of Tirumal Naik's accession, he found it impossible to stay any longer in Madura, Condemned by his own men, he took the staff of a pilgrim,
19 See Madr. Arch. Rep. 1911, p. 89 where Tirumal's interview with the Setupati is epigraphically proved.
50 Inscription 650 of 1505 says that Tirumal Naik gave a village near Tiruchchengodu for the merit ot Kumara Muttu. Tirumalai Naik in S. 1581 (Viļambi). The latter is said to be Tirumal's son. See Antiquities also, I, 203.
